What does a quad core processor do for you in the current software market?

J

Joyce P

New Member
Do any of today's software package take advantage of a quad core processor or is the idea of 4 cores for futurability? I am buying a computer for movies and moderate to heavy gaming (Flight Sim X, Need for Speed, Gears of War). I was leaning toward the Q6600 or Q6700 but I had a gentleman tell me tonight that no current software on the market utilizes four cores and that multithreaded software uses two cores at most and your other two are relegated to background tasks. He suggested going with the E8400, the Core 2 Duo at 3.0GHz. He said ultimately the Q6600 is just two E6600's casted together and that software that can optimize four cores is years down the road. Is there any truth to this? :confused: So confused...

- Joyce
 
oscaryu1 said:
Multitasking

Shouldn't it be in "the current HARDWARE market"?
Click to expand...

No I mean in today's world of software is hardware like quad cores necessary or would a dual core running at a faster speed per core be just as good? Has the software caught up with the quad core software yet? :)
 
Joyce P said:
No I mean in today's world of software is hardware like quad cores necessary or would a dual core running at a faster speed per core be just as good? Has the software caught up with the quad core software yet? :)
Click to expand...

No not yet... unfortunately :(

A E8400 will yield better results than a Q6600 if you play... let's say BF2... or any other 2 core utilized game... The only game I know that supports Quads is HL2...
 
oscaryu1 said:
No not yet... unfortunately :(

A E8400 will yield better results than a Q6600 if you play... let's say BF2... or any other 2 core utilized game... The only game I know that supports Quads is HL2...
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I wanted to know...thanks so much!

xoxox

- Joyce
 
No problem! For multitasking, go with the Quads. For gaming and light multitasking, a dual would work fine.

The future awaits quad-utilization softwares...
 
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